A.5.20 Addressing information security within supplier agreements
The information security requirements that matter for each supplier are to be set and agreed with that supplier, depending on the type of relationship. Purpose (stated in ISO/IEC 27002:2022): makes the agreed security level for each supplier binding through written terms. As an Annex A reference control, it is compared with the controls determined in risk treatment (6.1.3 c) and recorded in the Statement of Applicability as included or excluded, with the justification and implementation status (6.1.3 d); implementation guidance is ISO/IEC 27002:2022 5.20.
Source: ISO/IEC 27001:2022, A.5.20. The statement above is our statement of the clause, read from the published text and cited so you can check it against the official text, not the instrument verbatim. Open ISO/IEC 27001:2022 in the compliance library.
Clauses 4 to 10 are the management-system requirements: none of them can be excluded when an organisation claims conformity. The 93 Annex A controls are a reference set: one may be excluded with a justification in the Statement of Applicability. Certification bodies assess conformity; the evidence lists here are what auditors commonly ask for, not a list the standard prescribes.
These are the artefacts auditors commonly ask for on this requirement, our guidance rather than text from the standard. Your assessor decides what is sufficient in your context, and asks for samples across the period when a report covers one.
system holds itEvidence a system already holds
none for this control
periodic reviewEvidence produced at each review
- Supplier-provided attestations or independent control effectiveness reports and records of issues raised and corrected · Vendor register / contract repository
governing documentDocuments that govern the control
- Statement of Applicability entry for control A.5.20, showing inclusion or justified exclusion, implementation status and the risks it treats · Policy repository / GRC workspace
- Supplier agreements containing security clauses proportionate to the relationship, such as classification mapping, agreed controls, incident notification, subcontracting, right to audit and termination terms · HR system / LMS
- A register of contracts, memoranda and information-sharing arrangements with outside parties showing what information each covers and when it was last reviewed · Vendor register / contract repository
- Minimum security requirement templates per information type and access type used as the basis for individual contracts · Vendor register / contract repository
First move
Common gaps auditors find
- Standard procurement terms are used with no security schedule for high-risk suppliers
- The right to audit or to receive assurance reports is missing from critical contracts
- No register of agreements exists, so the organization cannot say which parties hold its information
- Subcontracting clauses do not flow security obligations down to sub-suppliers
Do this for your whole sheet
Paste the rows you run your controls from and get this mapping for every control at once, with the periodic-review ones flagged and a first move per row. No account for the first run.
Build my evidence sheetA.5.19 Information security in supplier relationships · A.5.21 Managing information security in the information and communication technology (ICT) supply chain